Turney faces Palm Beach County ethics complaint

Dean Turney, who in 2010 was a key player in the scandal that toppled a Palm Beach County commissioner, now faces an ethics inquiry over lobbying rules.

The county Ethics Commission on Thursday found probable cause to hold a hearing into a complaint that Turney in December failed to register as a lobbyist.

The hearing is aimed at determining if Turney violated the county's lobbyist registration ordinance. The law requires lobbyists to disclose who they are paid to represent, pay a $25 filing fee to register each client and to report yearly lobbying expenses. It also forbids lobbyists from making false statements to government officials, employees or boards.

Turney, who in the past has lobbied local government and led the Wellington Equestrian Alliance, could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

In 2010, phone messages left for Turney turned into key evidence in the scandal that ousted then-County Commissioner Jeff Koons.

Koons pleaded guilty to felony extortion, misdemeanor perjury and violating public-meeting and public-record laws for using the weight of his office to try to stifle opposition to an environmental project that he had long supported.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office received recordings of profanity-laced messages Koons left for Turney. Turney was a long-time friend of the commissioner who was acting as a representative of Robert Johnson Sr. and his family who owned a nearby commercial building and objected to the project.

Koons had county employees photograph the property and suggested to Turney that he would call in the code enforcement department, even though "there were no legitimate code enforcement issues," according to the State Attorney's Office.

On Thursday, the Ethics Commission called for holding a hearing for Turney within four months.

Punishments for ethics code violations can range from reprimands to prosecution by the State Attorney's Office as a first-degree misdemeanor, with maximum penalties of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Community activist Barbara Ready in March filed a complaint over Taylor using his former "mayor" title on campaign literature while running to regain the post that he had held until 2010. The Ethics Commission found that the complaint was "legally insufficient" and dismissed it.